FORMER European Tour professional Richard Dinsdale will be among the hundreds of PGA players bidding to win a place in the grand final of The Lombard Trophy at Gleneagles on September 3-4.

FORMER European Tour professional Richard Dinsdale will be among the hundreds of PGA players bidding to win a place in the grand final of The Lombard Trophy at Gleneagles on September 3-4.

The Parc Golf Academy PGA professional has a special affinity with the event having won the PGA National Pro-Am Championship when it was last sponsored by Lombard back in 2006.

He came close to winning it for a second time recently in Mexico, and, with dates for the grand final and 16 regional finals unveiled, the Newport pro revealed his club members are already honing their games in a bid to team up with him in the regional final at Machynys Peninsula in July.

“I have been lucky to reach a few PGA finals in my career so far and I love this sort of tournament, as do my members,” said Dinsdale.

“They are quite competitive down here and will all be practising for the monthly medal in a bid to win a place alongside me.

“Reaching the final creates a really good buzz at the club and raises our profile.”

Dinsdale and his soon-to-be-decided amateur partner will tee up at Machynys Peninsula which the former PGA Cup player revealed was the venue for the qualifier in 2006.

He topped the leaderboard there that year before going on to win the grand final in Portugal.

“Machynys has been a lucky course for me and, hopefully, it will be again this time round,” he added. “And the prospect of reaching the final at Gleneagles is an exciting one.

There has been a big increase in the prize fund which is fantastic and Lombard are a great sponsor,” said Dinsdale.

Lombard’s return as headline sponsor with a three-year agreement has also seen the prize fund increased by £30,000 to £80,000 with the winning pro earning £12,000.

“I met a few familiar faces recently when they sponsored the PGA Pro-Captain Challenge and it is great to have them back on board with the PGA National Pro-Am,” added Dinsdale.

WalesOnline is part of Media Wales, publisher of the Western Mail, South Wales Echo, Wales on Sunday and the seven Celtic weekly titles, offering you unique access to our audience across Wales online and in print.